10 Different Types of Laughter

No, the next type of laughter on our list isn't something you can find on a grocery store isle. Canned laughter is another term for what's commonly referred to as the "laugh track."

Canned laughter is real laughter -- it just happens to be laughter taken completely out of one context and placed in another [source: Farnham].

Because of laughter's social connection, television producers understand that placing canned laughter over the soundtrack to programming increases the chance of an audience finding humor in the material -- or at least laughing in response to it [source: Farnham].

Of course, the laughter has to "sound" genuine to the audience; humans can quickly tell the difference between genuine and fake laughter.

Origin of the Laugh Track

Canned laughter was first added to television programming in 1950 on NBC's "The Hank McCune Show" [source: Farnham]. It was the brainchild of engineer Charley Douglas, who, 40 years later, received an Emmy for his contribution [Source: AAT].